


Normal in Comparison

by RatMonarch



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Bickering, Cute, Developing Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Merman Izaya, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 23:23:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19072786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RatMonarch/pseuds/RatMonarch
Summary: Shizuo was considered a freak by human standards, with his superhuman strength and incredibly short temper.But compared to Izaya, he was almost ... normal.





	Normal in Comparison

Shizuo Heiwajima sat on the wooden dock a few feet away from his apartment, idly smoking a cigarette and quietly drinking in just how _nice_ of a night this was. The air was just the right amount of warm, the ocean was lapping gently against the shore, and a large white moon hung quiet and bright in the night sky. Shizuo could very rarely say he ever felt peaceful. His vitriolic temper didn’t allow such moods to be commonplace, but tonight, he felt content. 

… At least he _had_ felt that way, until all of a sudden, a pale white hand shot out of the dark water below him and latched onto his ankle. Then, before he could properly react, he was dragged off of the deck and into the cold, black salt water below with a splash. 

Thankfully, the confusion and panic didn’t last long. The creature who’d grabbed his ankle hadn’t submerged him very far and had almost immediately released him as soon as his head went underwater. Shizuo broke his head through the surface of the water, coughing out the bit of salt water that had managed to get in his mouth and shaking excess water out of his hair. 

He gritted his teeth when the sound of laughter hit his ears. Turning his head, he saw another head poking out of the water. He glared at the creature, who he noticed was staying _conveniently_ just out of grabbing range. Growling, he said, “I oughta kill you, Izaya, you fucking asshole.”

The raven-haired creature’s vermillion-red eyes narrowed. He stuck his tongue out and taunted, “I’d like to see you try, Shizu-chan.” Then, as if to emphasize his point, he suddenly laid on his back, so his powerful, ruby-red tail was visible and used it to splash some water at Shizuo’s face. 

Immediately, red-hot anger flooded through Shizuo. He was about to attempt swimming towards Izaya so he could strangle him, but the other had already disappeared underwater. At the sight of that, almost all the will Shizuo had to chase him died. The water was inky-black and Izaya was an amazing swimmer. He had no hopes of finding him and catching him with his inferior senses. 

So, instead, he focused his attention on pulling himself back onto the dock, cautiously eyeing the water to see if Izaya would be gutsy enough to try and grab him again. If he was, Shizuo wouldn’t hesitate in smacking his foot down on the bastard’s face. He wouldn’t even feel bad. It was just self-defense and justice at that point. 

Thankfully, Izaya didn’t make the attempt and Shizuo sat down sopping wet on the dock, thinking about how _miserable_ the walk back to his house was going to be now, thanks to Izaya. 

After a few seconds of fuming and cursing under his breath, he saw the top of a head peering cautiously out of the water. 

“Fuck you, Izaya-kun,” Shizuo sniffed at him. “I oughta grab you out there and sell you to a circus.”

His threat caused red eyes to roll. Seemingly more confident though that Shizuo wasn’t going to fight him at any second, Izaya lifted more of himself out of the water. Arms crossed, he shook his head and said, “Still no sense of humor, I see, Shizu-chan. Really. It was only a joke.”

“Yeah, well it wasn’t too funny. The walk home is going to be miserable and freezing,” Shizuo said. “I don’t spend all day underwater like you do.”

Izaya tapped his chin thoughtfully, as if that thought had never occurred to him, and said, “I suppose that is true, but still a bit of an overreaction. But hey, I can make it up to you.”

Shizuo didn’t know whether to be excited by that or not. On one hand, Izaya was a fascinating creature who knew the sea better than his own hand. According to the stories he had told Shizuo, he had seen all sorts of treasures and trinkets down there. When their relationship grew, he even brought a few back to Shizuo for him to keep, saying that they’re nothing more than pretty things to look at down there for his people and that Shizuo would find more use for them. Shizuo had assumed Izaya had thought he would sell them for money - he did complain about his meager pay at times - but he secretly kept all of them, finding them too precious and unique to just get rid of. Izaya also brought him all sorts of other things. Seashells, fossils, and human devices that had been dumped out into the ocean that he wanted an explanation for. Izaya would tell him what all the devices were used for down in merperson society, and Shizuo found himself fascinated by it all, hearing about a complex society that most people up here didn’t even know about (and those who had found out about it, usually got dragged down by the very merpeople who described it to him). 

But Izaya was also an asshole who liked to pull pranks whenever he could, just because it got him attention. 

So whenever Izaya said he had a “surprise”, Shizuo couldn’t help but be wary. 

“Yeah? What is it?” he asked, despite himself. 

Izaya held up a finger and said, “Hold on a moment, let me grab it.” Then, before Shizuo could say anything, he was already underwater again and out of sight, leaving Shizuo with just the ocean. It was amazing how quickly Izaya could slip away completely from his sights. It was almost like Izaya was some sort of magic trick or hallucination. One moment he was there, the next he was gone, leaving Shizuo wondering if he was even real.

Shizuo certainly hadn’t thought he was real after the first time he met him. He had admittedly been drunk the first time, and Izaya had only stayed for a few seconds to try and grab him to pull him underwater, only to be surprised when Shizuo was strong enough to hold on. Then, after Shizuo had managed to push him back a good distance, Izaya had laughed and said, he was interesting.

Shizuo had been furious then. At the time, he had only seen the upper-half of Izaya’s body and had simply assumed this was some asshole swimmer who was too comfortable. But then, Izaya had chirped that he would grant him the blessing of seeing him the next night if he showed up at the same time, and had disappeared, but not before Shizuo had caught a glimpse of his tail going underwater. 

He had then stood there wondering just how much he had to drink. But it had to have been somewhat real. He had felt the touch of skin on his arm when Izaya had grabbed him, had felt a supernatural strength not unlike his own trying to pull him down. And if Izaya was a normal person, then why had he disappeared underwater and never resurfaced? He had kept checking the news throughout the next day at work, and had never seen reports about a body being found floating in the water… so part of him had wondered if what he saw actually was what he thought it was.

So despite his mind insisting that he was going crazy, he had decided to go there the next day, and sure enough, Izaya poked up and said, “I am glad you came. My name is Izaya Orihara. What is yours?”

And then ever since then, Shizuo had been visiting the merman every single day.

Sometimes, Shizuo wondered some things. He wondered if that day, when he had first met Izaya, if Izaya had intended to take him down and drown him, which some of his species still to this day did to misfortunate sailors who fell for their charms, or if he was simply pulling a prank. He said his species were also prone to just doing that as well. Izaya certainly had never attempted to drown him since that day. He did tricks like he did then where he pulled Shizuo in the water with him or splashed water on him, and one time he had even pretended that he was being attacked by a shark, but he had never attempted to hold Shizuo underwater. 

But was that all part of a ploy. A ploy to charm Shizuo so that he would willingly go underwater and die? 

He doubted that one though. According to Izaya, he was interesting. The most interesting human he had ever met. He said most humans were boring and predictable when he saw them. They freaked out, they tried to take his picture, they attempted to kill him, they wondered how high they were… but Shizuo was the only human who fought back with him when he tried to pull them. The only one who talked to him. The only one who came back.

And it was clear that Izaya was interested in human society. He asked several questions about what life was like up there. He said that he technically wasn’t supposed to be around humans as much as he was. His society was very dedicated to privacy and preserving their mythical status with the humans. But he found them too enticing to ignore and Shizuo was the most interesting one yet. 

And judging by the greedy way Izaya took any trinket that Shizuo gave him sometimes (in return for all the things Izaya brought him), Shizuo couldn’t help but think that Izaya didn’t just toss things that interested him away. He kept them around and played with them. 

And it was clear that Izaya didn’t feel he was endangered by Shizuo knowing about his existence. Izaya had made it clear that most mermaid-caused drownings weren’t due to some romantic urge or anything like human literature had made it out to be. That instead, it was usually to preserve the secret of their species. But Izaya had never asked him if he told anyone. He didn’t seem to expect that Shizuo had. 

On one hand, maybe this was due to Izaya’s arrogance. He often teased Shizuo for his lack of a friend circle. Maybe he had simply assumed Shizuo had no one to tell. Maybe he assumed that even if Shizuo was telling people, that no one would believe him. But Shizuo liked to think it was because Izaya trusted him. Trusted him to keep his secrets and maintain this strange relationship they had. 

And maybe the idea of someone trusting him is why Shizuo had never considered telling Tom or anyone else for that matter about Izaya. This was his secret. This was the place he could come to when he needed an escape from the human world. 

In regular life, Shizuo was a freak. He had superhuman strength, an incredibly short fuse, and people in general avoided him out of fear. But to Izaya, he was just another human. Izaya, and all the other merpeople were just as strong as Shizuo was, if not possibly stronger, so while Shizuo was certainly unique for a human, Izaya had made it clear by meperson standards, he was normal. And to be perfectly honest, for Shizuo, it felt nice to be normal for once. And for Izaya, it probably felt nice to have someone he felt like he could approach. Someone who was willing to indulge him with all the stories of human society he wanted and someone to tell the merpeople history with. 

The two of them educated with each other. And yes, Izaya drove him nuts sometimes, but he didn’t even want to imagine Izaya disappearing underwater one day and then never coming back. That thought was depressing, like this one moment of constant pleasantness being gone forever. 

So, he hoped, for his own sake, that he remained interesting to Izaya, just so Izaya never felt like leaving. 

All of a sudden, he was snapped out of his thoughts when Izaya poked his head out of the water again and swam up to the dock. Lifting his hand up to show the thing he was clutching, Izaya said, “I found this when I was out swimming and thought you would like it.”

It was a ring, and a very nice one at that.It was a simple silver metal band, but it was obviously made from pure silver. And it looked somewhat new too. Shizuo almost felt bad. He was envisioning some newlywed couple who had already lost one of their wedding bands in the sea. But he couldn’t feel bad for long when he saw just how excited Izay was to give it to him.

“Put it on! Does it fit?” Izaya asked eagerly as Shizuo gingerly took it out of his hand to inspect it. Shizuo couldn’t help but smile at his eagerness, finding it strangely endearing. 

“Alright, alright. We’ll see if it it fits.” Shizuo said, sliding the ring on his finger. It was a little snug, but it fit surprisingly better than he thought it would. He could tell Izaya was delighted at the sight. Deciding to take the risk, he leaned his hand down and allowed Izaya to look at it on his finger. He knew jewelry wasn’t as common in the merpeople realms and when it was utilized, it was usually made from shells and into necklaces and bracelets, so rings were still a newer concept that he wasn’t fully used to. 

But Shizuo had taught him about them at one point, he distinctly remembered doing so when Izaya had asked about one he had seen on someone else’s hand years ago. 

And he knew for damn sure that with the insane memory Izaya had that he had not forgotten something that Shizuo had explained to him about them.

But Izaya being the bastard he was, was never going to say it himself.

Not unless Shizuo goaded him into it. 

“It looks cool!” Izaya exclaimed and Shizuo nodded, smiling despite himself. But he said, “You know, Izaya, I seem to recall that I told you rings meant something here in human society. Gift-wise, anyway.”

Izaya suddenly froze, before he put on a placating face, saying, “As decorations and signs of prestige, right? I remember you telling me that. They are part of the jewelry, you all use.”

Shizuo nodded and said, “Yes. All of that is correct. But they mean something else too when you give them to someone. Do you remember what that is?”

Izaya suddenly was looking away, looking strangely flustered and Shizuo couldn’t help but feel elated at the sight. It was very rare when he got the verbal upperhand on Izaya and he had to revel in every moment he could. But still, Izaya was playing dumb. Still not looking Shizuo in the face, he said, “Mm, then I don’t remember Shizu-chan. You tell me quite a lot of things. You can’t possibly expect me to remember them all.”

A bullshit lie if Shizuo ever heard it. Izaya bragged all the time about his memory skills. But Shizuo decided to take the opportunity to also play along. Grabbing Izaya’s arm gently, he tugged the surprised merman closer, murmuring, “Hm. Guess I’ll have to re-educate you on that point. Here in the human world, giving a ring to someone is a sign of affection and romance.”

Izaya’s face remained trained, his tone neutral, but Shizuo didn’t miss the tremble and tentativeness in his words as he murmured, “Oh… well, if that is the case, does that change things between us?”

Suddenly feeling emboldened, Shizuo smirked and said, “No… except that maybe I want to kiss you now. Is that alright with you?”

He didn’t miss how fast Izaya’s head turned, how quickly he nodded. And soon, he found himself leaning even further down so his lips could crash into Izaya’s, tasting the salt on Izaya’s lips and drinking in the sounds Izaya made into his mouth. 

When they pulled away, Shizuo said, “Want to see a human apartment for the first time? I can keep you in the bathtub for the night and carry you around the rest.” 

Izaya hesitated. Shizuo could see how interested he was at the prospect, but he was probably debating whether or not it was a safe idea. He watched as the merman’s eyes glanced around, trying to see if there was anyone else on the beach with them or at the steps of Shizuo’s apartment building. When he didn’t spot anyone, he said, “Hold on.” and dove underwater, no doubt trying to check if there were any eyes watching from there.

Shizuo stared at an inky expanse of water for a while before Izaya poked his head back up and nodded, saying, “Be quick though, Shizu-chan.”

Shizuo couldn’t help but feel giddy as he lifted the merman out of the water.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't ask. This is what happens when you want to write a Shizaya fic, and you've been reading way too many mermaid/merman/merperson fanfics during your free time. I hope you enjoy and who knows, I might play in this universe more. It was fun to write!
> 
> As always, critique is appreciated. 
> 
> Have an amazing day!


End file.
